By ED BARKPaul Newman's death didn't hit with the sudden, shocking impact of Tim Russert's. But man, it hurts no less.

Battling cancer without ever making a public show of it, Newman went down on Friday night after 83 years of fame, fortune and fortitude. He's survived by his wife of 50 years -- Joanne Woodward. That's still a Hollywood ending for the ages.

Newman's television credits of course aren't the stuff of legend. But as with many actors of his vintage -- including Robert Redford and Robert Duvall -- he used the small screen as a valuable training ground. His last hurrah as an actor then returned him to the medium that long ago had put him in the starting blocks.

Could it be true that Newman once played Plato and Nathan Hale in two episodes of CBS' You are There, a history-in-the-making series hosted by Walter Cronkite? Yeah, that was in 1953.

Does anyone remember Newman as crusty, bearded, profane Max Roby in HBO's multi-part Empire Falls? Yeah, that was in 2005, and Newman won his one and only Emmy for what's now his final bow.

No one knew his name when he piled up all those apprentice guest roles in weekly "Golden Age" anthology hours affixed with their sponsors' names. Playhouse 90. Armstrong Circle Theatre. The Philco Television Playhouse. Goodyear Television Playhouse. The Kaiser Aluminum Hour.

Another of those artifacts, The United States Steel Hour, gave Newman a chance to shine in 1956 as star pitcher Henry Wiggen in Bang the Drum Slowly. Another relative nobody, Albert Salmi, played Wiggen's best friend, ponderous, spare part catcher Bruce Pearson.

Seventeen years later, few knew of Robert DeNiro until he made a big impression as Pearson in an acclaimed feature film version of Bang the Drum Slowly. By that time, Newman already had The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in the bag. Television, long out of the picture, had served as his junior high school. You graduate and move on.

Two less musty TV footnotes also come to mind. Off-camera in 1980, Newman directed his wife in ABC's The Shadow Box, a challenging and less than cheery drama that also featured Christopher Plummer and Valerie Harper. The network kissed it off -- at least from a scheduling standpoint. The film aired in the week between Christmas and New Year's. Virtually no one watched it.

Newman made a stronger impression -- even though it lasted just a few seconds -- as an unbilled irritant on the Aug. 30, 1993 launch of CBS' Late Show with David Letterman.

Where are the "damn cats?" he bellowed at the host. Letterman then told him that Cats was playing down the street, prompting Newman to storm out indignantly in the guise of an irate out-of-towner.

It underscores what he once said of those latter day star turns on grocery story shelves.

"Once you see your face on a bottle of salad dressing," he said, "it's hard to take yourself seriously."

All proceeds from "Newman's Own" products go to charitable organizations. There's no better time to buy.

By ED BARKAs noted a few days ago, a rather sudden health setback has knocked unclebarky.com and your namesake content provider out of commission since last weekend.

That's still the ongoing reality. But a check of emails Wednesday morning provided an opening to update two previously reported and much commented-on local TV news stories reported at length in earlier postings. I think I can manage that much.

Otherwise I'll have a "procedure" Thursday that may determine what's going on health-wise. My wife, Madeline, has been a rock through all of this. I can't tell you how lucky I am in that regard. Your kind wishes, expressed on this page and in emails, also are greatly appreciated. Depending on developments, this site will be fully operative fairly soon. And yes, the Oct. 4th Uncle Barky Show with Mark Cuban is still on.

Now for those updates, presented without further adornment:

***Former NBC5 early morning meteorologist Rebecca Miller, whose six-month "non-compete" clause ended early this month, will be back in front of a weather map on "The 33's" Thursday and Friday (Sept. 25-26) 9 p.m. newscasts.

KDAF-TV (Ch. 33) news director David Duitch said in an interview Wednesday that she is not auditioning or "trying out" for a full- or part-time position.

Miller merely is filling in for vacationing incumbent Bob Goosmann, said Duitch, who has been news director since late July. "I don't have any openings," he emphasized.

Newsroom employees at The 33 were informed of Miller's status on Tuesday, Duitch said.

Obviously, a weathercaster vacancy could develop somewhere down the road at "The 33." But in the here and now, Duitch is unequivocally on the record as saying that Miller is a high-profile substitute and nothing more.

***Former Fox4 medical correspondent John Hammarley, suspended in June and then dropped by the station in August, has landed a new position with a prominent organization that's often in the news.

Hammarley confirmed Wednesday that he is the new senior media advisor/news bureau chief for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Established in 1982, the Dallas-based "grass roots network" long has been nationally recognized for its efforts to prevent and combat breast cancer.

"It's a great organization with a phenomenal purpose, and I'm happy to be part of it," Hammarley said in an email Wednesday.

Fox4 and Hammarley have declined to comment in any way on the reasons behind their separation.

I had eagerly planned to write about Sunday's big ticket developments -- the Cowboys' commanding win over my homestate Packers and an Emmy Awards ceremony characterized by waves of partisan political jabs.

Instead, health problems that began over the weekend and got progressively worse have not made that possible. Hopefully I'll be back shortly to continue writing about the new fall season and Friday's first presidential debate. Thanks for your understanding.Ed Bark

***The latest Saturday Night Live had two big political sketches. They underscored the show's liberal/conservative bias in a polarized presidential election year unlike any other.

For starters, SNL deployed Darrell Hammond as a clueless John McCain authorizing a series of attack ads against Barack Obama. "I approve this message," McCain kept parroting after being assured that all of the ads were indisputably truthful.

They included the assertion, "Obama supports tax cuts for pedophiles." Factually that's correct. Some pedophiles could benefit from his plan.

A later, longer sketch deployed virtually the entire SNL cast and a big chunk of extras as a clueless task force of 50 New York Times reporters. They were being prepped for an all-out invasion of Alaska and assault on McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin. One identified himself as Karl Marx.

In the end, only three of these pampered, effete elites were willing to rough it in a land bereft of their accustomed creature comforts. Epilogue: one of them won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of reports on "unproven yet undisproven incest in the Palin family."

Republican talking point: Aha, but SNL led the show with the McCain sketch and then waited until the last half-hour to give a semblance of equal time to our side of things. They knew, of course, that viewing levels would be lower by then. No further evidence is needed of calculated liberal bias. So don't get fooled again.

Democratic talking point: Aha, but last night's celebrity host was hot young actor James Franco (Pineapple Express and the Spiderman movies). He had a prominent role in SNL's shredding of the NYT, but where was he for the McCain sketch? Nowhere. Instead we got stuck with tired old Darrell Hammond. No further evidence is needed of calculated conservative bias. So don't get fooled again.

By ED BARKThe newsroom ranks at CBS11 got another trimming Friday with reporter Mark Johnson's decision to leave after six years at the station.

Johnson's last day was Friday and his new home will be the still-under-construction Shale.TV website, headed by former CBS11 colleagues Tracy Rowlett and John Sparks, and ex-network producer and Dallas Morning News reporter Olive Talley. He'll be a "senior correspondent and fill-in host," according to a member sent to CBS11 staffers by news director Scott Diener.

Sponsored in full by the Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the site is being billed as an objective vehicle to discuss production of natural gas in the Barnett Shale and other natural gas shales throughout the country. Skepticism abounds as Shale.TV ramps up for a tentative October launch.

Diener noted that Johnson had covered stories ranging from Hurricane Rita to the space shuttle Columbia disaster to the 2004 presidential election.

"We will miss Mark's excellent story telling, creative live work, political contacts and knowledge, keen interest in environmental reporting and ability to flawlessly jump on the anchor desk with just a moment's notice," Diener said.

It's unknown whether Johnson's spot will be filled or left vacant. CBS11 now is down to 11 full-time street reporters. The rest of its news team is comprised of either full- or part-time news, weather and sports anchors.

By ED BARKTroy Aikman spiked his regular Thursday morning segment on "The Ticket's" Dunham and Miller show with an unsolicited hot sports opinion aimed at Fox's sports overlords.

Aikman, who joins Joe Buck on the network's play-by-play A-team, carped about not getting to call Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-Green Bay Packers game. It instead will be the property of NBC's Sunday Night Football.

He wondered how Fox could let that one get away. Meanwhile, Aikman and Buck are stuck with the Denver Broncos-New Orleans Saints game during Sunday's daytime hours.

Aikman's frustration is understandable. But under the terms of its deal with the NFL, NBC isn't allowed to "cherry pick" any games until the final six weeks of the season. Even then there are restrictions on shifting a Sunday afternoon game to NBC's prime-time showcase. NFL schedule-makers made Dallas-Green Bay an early season night game, which automatically made it the property of NBC, not Fox.

Aikman also wondered about co-host George Dunham's mental makeup after asking whether it's true he's actually a fan of Fox's new Japanese import, Hole in the Wall.

Basically, contestants try to shape themselves into various cut-out holes coming at them from a moving wall. Those who fail are fated to land in a pool of green water. It redundantly happens over and over again, but maybe at some point they'll add excrement to create extra excitement.

The easily amused Dunham, also known as the planet's last living tiddly winks player (wink-wink), has embraced the critically reviled Hole in the Wall as a veritable Masterpiece Theatre.

"You've gotta be kidding me," said Aikman, who views the show as virtually the final fall of western civilization.

The Hall of Fame quarterback marveled that it's come to this on Fox. What a great way to educate our children, he cracked. Let alone some of the adults tuning in.

Dunham gamely tried to distance himself while his on-air colleagues of course piled on. No penalties were called.

Dallas fifth grader Dalton Sherman climbs another step on the celebrity rung Thursday with an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (3 p.m. locally on NBC5).

Sherman, 10, a student at Charles Rice Learning Center, won the Gardere Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition last January. He's since orated before many other audiences and, of course, on youtube. But this will be his first national TV appearance.Ed Bark

That didn't take long. HBO already has renewed its vampire-themed series True Blood for a second season. It premiered on Sept. 7th and has drawn more than 4 million viewers "to date" in multiple airings, says HBO.

"We are absolutely thrilled that the critics and our viewers have embraced True Blood," HBO exec Michael Lombardo says. "Alan Ball has done it again -- made an addictive series that is unlike any other."

Ball first did it for HBO with Six Feet Under. Earlier this week, TNT picked up a second season of the legal drama Raising the Bar after just three episodes had aired.Ed Bark

AS PROMISED, WE HAVE A NEW DATE FOR THE STORM-POSTPONED UNCLE BARKY SHOW, WITH GUEST MARK CUBAN. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR OCT. 4TH AT 4 P.M. AT THE SAME SITE, STRATOS GREEK TAVERNA, 2907 W. NORTHWEST HWY. THE RESTAURANT WILL BE DONATING $1,000 TO OUR GUEST'S DESIGNATED CHARITY, THE DALLAS MAVERICKS FOUNDATION. ADMISSION AS ALWAYS IS FREE.

WE APPRECIATE EVERYONE'S PATIENCE, AND MARK'S FLEXIBILITY. AND WE HOPE THAT ALL WHO PLANNED TO COME WILL COME AGAIN. A FUN AND INTERESTING TIME IS PROMISED. AND THAT FIRST BATCH OF OFFICIAL UNCLEBARKY.COM T-SHIRTS SHOULD BE READY BY THEN.Ed Bark

THE LIKELIHOOD OF VERY SEVERE WEATHER IN DALLAS-FORT WORTH SATURDAY AFTERNOON HAS LED US TO POSTPONE THE SEPT. 13TH UNCLE BARKY SHOW WITH GUEST MARK CUBAN.

CUBAN HAS AGREED TO RE-SCHEDULE, AND WE SOON SHOULD HAVE A NEW SATURDAY DATE FOR HIS APPEARANCE. WE'LL LET EVERYONE KNOW AS SOON AS WE KNOW.

THERE'S A VERY OUTSIDE CHANCE THAT SATURDAY WILL BE A DAY OF SUNSHINE OR MAYBE ONLY MODERATE RAIN IN NORTH TEXAS. BUT WE DON'T WANT TO RISK ANYONE'S SAFETY. AND IT WOULD BE UNSEEMLY TO DO THE SHOW WHILE MANY TEXANS NEARER TO HURRICANE IKE ARE REELING FROM WHAT COULD BE EXTENSIVE DAMAGE.

SO PLEASE STAY TUNED. AND WE VERY MUCH APPRECIATE YOUR CONTINUED PATIENCE AND SUPPORT.

P.S. OUR ABOVE BANNER AD WILL BE CHANGED AS SOON AS MY YOUNG TECH WIZARD IN AUSTIN CAN GET TO IT. AND THAT SHOULD BE SOON.Ed Bark

By ED BARKMaybe MSNBC's Keith Olbermann would like to declare at least a one-day moratorium on Bill O'Reilly and instead give his "Worst Person in the World" award to Lou Lumenick.

The head film critic of The New York Post inadvertently -- but reportedly unapologetically -- hit impaired Roger Ebert over the head with a binder during a screening at the Toronto Film Festival. It seems that Ebert, who's been battling throat and thyroid cancer and can't talk, was tapping Lumenick on the shoulder because he was blocking his view of the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

"Don't touch me!" Lumenick reportedly bellowed before eventually retaliating. The incident made its way into the Rush & Malloy column, published by the Post's NYC tabloid rival, The New York Daily News.

Ebert still reviews movies for the Chicago Sun-Times. Lumenick clearly isn't fit to even be a TV critic.

Former WFAA8 anchor Macie Jepson has some further and more pointed comments, sent via email, about her Aug. 21st dismissal from the station. But I would have preferred to tell this story another way.Ed Bark

Mark made this commitment long before learning that his daughter's very first soccer game will be at 4 p.m. the same day. So he'll spend an hour with your congenial host and our live audience before leaving to catch most of the game. It seems like a very fair compromise.

Our principal topics will be the guest's many and varied TV adventures, including Dancing with the Stars and his HDNet networks. But some sports questions will be worked in, of course. And there'll be time for audience participation, too.

We'll change the time on the above banner ad as soon as possible, but please be aware of this new 3 p.m. start. As always, Stratos is making a very generous contribution to our guest's designated charity. In this case, $1,000 will go to the Dallas Mavericks Foundation. Admission is free, with terrific Greek food and drink readily available.

Also of note -- or not. We'll have the very first selection of unclebarky.com t-shirts, all of them being hand-screened in Austin by my son, Sam, as he navigates his way through his final semester at nearby Texas State University. Only the finest quality "virgin cotton" is used, he assures me. They'll be in three different colors, a variety of sizes and sell for $15 apiece. A $5 donation per sale will be made to the Mavericks Foundation. More will be available on-line if there's a market for them.

Hope to see you there, and please help to spread the word! Your support for unclebarky.com is greatly appreciated.Ed Bark